Abstract
India, the ‘largest democracy of the world’ has also been known after 1947 for its attempts at establishing a secular regime and its success — quite exceptional — in maintaining it for decades despite ups and downs. Even though Indira Gandhi had the notion of secularism inserted in the Indian Constitution in 1976, almost twenty years after independence, the political system set up during the reign of her father, Jawaharlal Nehru, was already designed along those lines. Secularism has been understood in India not as a synonym for the French word laïcité, which implies separation between church and state; rather, it designates the equidistance of the state vis-à-vis all religions and an equally positive attitude towards them all. For instance, Article 25 of the constitution emphasizes that ‘all persons are equally free to profess, practice and propagate religion’, and Article 30 states that ‘All minorities, whether based on religion or language, shall have the right to establish and administer educational institutions’, which can also receive subsidies from the state.
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Notes
On these historical developments which cannot be covered in the scope of this chapter, see P. Brass, Language, Religion and Politics in North India (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1974); L.S. Freitag, Collective Action and Community: Public Arenas and the Emergence of Communalism in North India (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1990); and G. Pandey, The Construction of Communalism in Colonial North India (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1990).
H. von Stienencron, ‘Hinduism: On the Proper Use of a Deceptive Term’, in G.D. Sontheimer and H. Kulke, eds, Hinduism Reconsidered (New Delhi: Manohar, 1989), 20.
R. Thapar, ‘Syndicated Moksha’, Seminar, September 1985, 17.
G. Minault, The Khilafat Movment: Religious Symbolism and Political Mobilization in India (New York: Columbia University Press, 1982).
M.S. Golwakar, We, or Our Nationhood Defined (Nagpur: Bharat Prakashan, 1939).
Ibid.
C. Jaffrelot, ‘The Idea of the Hindu Race in the Writings of Hindu Nationalist Ideologues in the 1920s and the 1930s: A Concept Between Two Cultures’, in P. Robb, ed., The Concept of Race in South Asia (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1995).
M.S. Golwalkar, Bunch of Thoughts (Bangalore: Jagaran Prakashan, 1966), 62.
Romila Thapar explains that this exclusion is not based on a racial criterion; it is social and ritual and hence can be overcome via acculturation and recognition of the superiority of the Brahmin: R. Thapar, Ancient Indian History (New Delhi: Orient Longman, 1978), 165, 169 and 179.
H. Barthval, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh: Ek Parichay (New Delhi: Suruchi Prakashan, 1998), 16.
Lok Sabha Debates, third session, col.8, no. 2, (New Delhi: Lok Sabha Secretariat, 1990), 633. For more details, see C. Jaffrelot, ‘Note sur un syndicat nationaliste hindou: le travail et les travailleurs dans l’idéologie et les stratégies du Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh’, in G. Heuzé, ed., Travailler en Inde, Purushartha, no. 14 (Paris: EHESS, 1992), 251–70. Today, the BMS has about 4.5 million members, Muslim India, no. 208, 20 April, 182.
For further details, see C. Jaffrelot, ‘The Vishva Hindu Parishad: Structures and Strategies’, in J. Haynes, ed., Religion, Globalisation and Political Culture in the Third World (London: Macmillan, 1999), 191–212.
B. Graham, ‘The Congress and Hindu Nationalism’, in D.A. Low, ed., The Indian National Congress (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1988), 174.
M. Hasan, ‘Adjustment and Accommodation: Indian Muslims after Partition’, Social Scientist 18(8–9), August–September, 1990, 52.
V. Graff, ‘Aligarh’s Long Quest for “Minority” Status — AMU (Amendment) Act, 1981’, Economic and Political Weekly, 11 August 1990, 1771–81.
J. Chiriyankandath, ‘Tricolour and Saffron: Congress and the New Hindu Challenge’, in S.K. Mitra and J. Chiriyankandath, eds, Electoral Politics in India: A Changing Landscape (New Delhi: Segment Books, 1992), 69.
M. Hasan, Legacy of a Divided Nation: India’s Muslims since Independence (London: Hurst, 1997), 294.
M. Hasan, ‘In Search of Integration and Identity: Indian Muslims since Independence’, Economic and Political Weekly, November 1988, 2470.
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© 2001 Amita Shastri and A. Jeyaratnam Wilson
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Jaffrelot, C. (2001). The Rise of Hindu Nationalism and the Marginalisation of Muslims in India Today. In: Shastri, A., Wilson, A.J. (eds) The Post-Colonial States of South Asia. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-11508-9_7
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